languages, canoes, houses, weapons, food, habits, &c."[223] The canoes of the Pacific islanders generally (_vide_ Captain Cook _passim_) were of considerable size, and of very perfect workmanship. But also Prescott ("Conquest of Mexico," ii. 473, quoting Beechey's "Voyage to Pacific," 1831, p. 2 Appendix, Humboldt's "Examen. Critique de l'Hist. de la Geog." and Nuov. Cont. ii. 55) says, "It would be easy for the inhabitant of Eastern Tartary or Japan to steer his canoe from islet to islet quite across to the American shore, without ever being on the ocean more than two days at a time."[224] [221] _Vide_ also Giebel, "Tagesfragen," p. 91; _apud_ Reusch, p. 500. [222] _Vide_ "Cook's Voyages," i. 199; Prescott, ii. 476. [223] "There have been recent instances of Japanese vessels having been thrown by shipwreck upon the coasts of the Sandwich Islands, and even on the mouth of the Columbia."--Reusch, "La Bible et la Nature," p. 499. "Since the north-west coast of America and the north-east of Asia have been explored, little difficulty remains on this subject.... Small boats can safely pass the narrow strait. Ten degrees farther south, the _Aleutian_ and Fox islands form a continuous chain between Kamschatka and the peninsula of Alaska in such a manner as to leave the passage across a matter of no difficulty."--Warburton's "Conquest of Canada," i. 194. Ellis ("Polynesian Researches," ii. 46) says: "There are also _many_ points of _resemblance_ in language, manners, and customs between the South Sea Islanders and the inhabitants of Madagascar in the west; the inhabitants of the _Aleutian_ and _Kurile_ islands in the north, which stretch along the mouth of Behring's Straits, and forms the chain which connects the old and new worlds," &c. [224] "The Sandwich Islands, with a population of 500,000, are more than two thousand miles from the coast of South America. How did the population of those islands get there? Certainly not in canoes over ocean waves of two thousand miles. But I am told 'the Sandwich islanders are Polynesians;' not a bit of it; they are two thousand miles north of the Polynesian group, with the same impossibility of canoe navigation, and are as different in _physiological traits_ of character and _language_ from the Polynesian, as they are different from the American races.--"Last Rambles" (Catlin), p. 317. 1868.